1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a monitoring device, a monitoring system and a monitoring method, which generate a mask processing image, obtained (acquired) by changing the image area of a movable body of the video (moving image) in a monitoring area into a mask image, and which output one of an original video and a mask processing image according to the use purpose of a user.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a store, such as a convenience store, a monitoring system is widely spread which monitors a situation in the store using the video of cameras by installing the cameras for capturing inside the store. However, it is necessary to secure the privacy of customers when the video is used for a purpose of customer behavior analysis, in which the behaviors of the customers in the store are analyzed, in order to improve the management of the store, that is, in order to improve a customer satisfaction level or to effectively manage the store in addition to the purpose of monitoring for crime prevention and disaster prevention.
With regard to a request for the privacy of customers to be secured, a technology that performs a mask processing (concealment processing) of changing a person area in a video captured by cameras into a specific mask image is known in the related art (refer to Japanese Patent No. 4236785). More specifically, in the technology, it is recognized whether or not a user who browses the video has authority for browsing an unprocessed video on which the mask processing is not performed, the unprocessed video is distributed to a user who has the authority for browsing the unprocessed video, that is, a user who has a use purpose of monitoring for crime prevention and disaster prevention, a video on which the mask processing is performed is distributed to a user who does not have the authority for browsing the unprocessed video, that is, a user who does not have the use purpose of monitoring, for example, a user who has a use purpose of understanding the degree of congestion in a restaurant, and the original video and the mask processing image are output in a switching manner according to the use purpose of the user.
Further, the mask processing has a large amount of operational load, and time is required from when the mask processing starts to when an appropriate mask-processed image is output. In addition, although it is not limited to the mask processing, when a background image in which a person is not reflected is necessary in a video processing using a background difference manner, the background image is generated from a video (frames) during a prescribed learning period. However, in order to generate an appropriate background image, it is necessary to sufficiently secure a long learning period. Therefore, it is difficult to immediately display an appropriate mask processing image when the display of video starts, and thus display delay occurs.
In the related art, such a problem is not taken into consideration. That is, in the related art, the original video and the mask processing image are output in a switching manner according to the use purpose of the user. However, in this case, the user starts the mask processing after the use purpose input operation is performed. Therefore, the mask processing is late for timing in which the display of video starts, with the result that the display delay occurs when the display of video starts, and thus there is a technical problem in that the user feels slowness on the process and it is difficult to obtain an expected feeling of use of the user.
More specifically, in recent years, opportunities, in which the video of cameras is used for purposes other than monitoring for crime prevention and disaster prevention, that is, the customer behavior analysis in order to improve the management of a store, have increased compared to the use of a video for the purpose of the monitoring, the importance of use of the video for the purposes other than the monitoring increases, and thus it is desired to provide a technology which is capable of obtaining an expected feeling of use of the user regardless of the use purpose.